Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Man U the lead in the first half but Sunderland were in the game until they suffered two huge blows minutes either side of half-time, firstly when Seb Larsson was controversially shown a straight red card, and then when Henrikh Mkhitaryan doubled his team’s advantage just 45 seconds into the second period.

And Anichebe says it has been those type of incidents - seeing games slip through their fingers in a matter of minutes - that have proved so costly and left Sunderland staring into the abyss.

“I think that’s the maybe the difference,” he said.

“I always speak honestly, I think we have a bit of naivety in our play sometimes.

“We go a goal down and instead of staying tight in our play, really concentrating, when we go a goal down and then concede again, it makes it very difficult for the rest of the team, it makes it so difficult.

“That’s the thing the manager is trying to address with the players. Going a goal down is something that happens to every team in the Premier League - but you need to give yourselves a foundation to come back.

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“It’s the naivety sometimes. Sometimes we chase the game and think we need to get the goal straight away, we don’t.

“Look at the game Tottenham played against Swansea, they [Spurs] went a goal down and scored three at the end of the game.”

Sunderland have kept only five clean sheets in 31 league games this season, but Anichebe says the entire team - and not just the defence - bears the responsibility for that.

He said: “Keeping clean sheets is what we need to do.

“And it’s not the defence, people might say that, it’s not, you keep clean sheets as a team not as individuals.

“Maybe we could have dropped back a bit more, it’s the whole team.

“Those are the foundations we need, you can feel the nervousness when we concede and sometimes we play to that, attack, attack, and then they break on us.

“We have a youngish team, so I think those are things we need to knock out of our game, the manager tells us every week to stay in the game.

“But going 2-0 down gives you a mountain to climb, especially against a team like Manchester United.”

Victor Anichebe (Image: newcastle chronicle)

Anichebe made his comeback from a knee ligament injury in last week’s defeat at Leicester City but against Man U he made his first start of 2017 - and completed the full 90 minutes.

He also had Sunderland’s best chance of the game against Man U, but was thwarted by goalkeeper Sergio Romero five minutes before the break with the score at 1-0 and when it was still eleven-versus-eleven.

“I’m feeling downbeat obviously, it’s not a good result,” he said. “Everything seems to be going against us.

“I had a half chance there but the keeper came out really quick.

“There’s some parts that we could take pride in - obviously I was a bit off it, I’ve been out for a while, but I linked up with JD [Jermain Defoe] a couple of times.”

Despite Sunderland losing for the 21st time this season, the fans at the Stadium of Light stuck with their team and Anichebe says the players must repay them on the field.

He added: “It’s the same for me and the rest of the boys, we just need to keep going.

“You see the fans outside there, they support us every game.

“I think we need to pour everything out for them, we need to just keep fighting and see where it takes us.”